Peak Design 45L Carry On - IcelandAir

If it doesn’t fit within their requirements there’s always a chance you’ll have to check no matter what anyone else says they’ve gotten away with.

I have seen them be very strict when leaving Seattle and then anything seems to go in Keflavik. I do think that they may size your bag on departure. I have seen two styles of luggage checkers. One is the traditional two sided slot where you squish your bag in between two sides. The other is one sided with an outline of the expected measures on the base plate. There is nothing to promote "squishing" with this one.

It hasn't happened to me, but I have seen people asked to check their bag when failing the sizer. A bag twice as big, when loading in Keflavik isn't even given a second glance.

As soft-sided, non-wheeled bag isn't rigid.

As long as you don't pack it to the max, it will fit into the sizer.

Remember, a cm is 0.4 inches. It will settle that much in the sizer due to gravity--unless you have packed every single available centimeter in the bag.

However, most people will have trouble keeping the depth to 20 cm.

A wheeled bag has a much more rigid frame so airline personnel are more on the lookout for them.

But don't forget about the weight. Many sizers nowadays have built in scales.

I went through Warsaw airport on Satuday. At one gate, three airlines had sizers. All had built in scales.

I have the Cotopaxi 28. The frames in those are not squish able even though the rest of it is soft. So it will either fit or not, but I looked at the 35 specs and it is 1/2" too big. So if you can, go to the airport before your trip and put it in the sizer to be sure. That way you would not have any surprises on your day of flight.

I am taking my bag in September, but that won't help you;)

Icelandair though is overall very strict with baggage. Here at SEA every time I have flown with them they check everyone's bags, even Saga. On our trip in February, they made every bag go into the sizer, and it did not matter what class you were flying.

I went with the Peak Design (as I had been leaning).

I believe if I don't stuff it full, and do not use the expanded section, it should work.

But, it is not the end of the world if I have to check it!

I'll report back in case anyone, in the future wonders about this particular travel backpack.

Thanks for all the responses!

follow up on this - I traveled with the Peak Design 45L (compressed) from Denver to Keflavik, Keflavik to Barcelona, Paris to Keflavik and Keflavik back to Denver and never had any issues with the sizing. It fit in the boxed sizer and was never pulled for checking!

Thank you so much for the follow up! It’s always good to hear how things work out. I hope you share more about the trip!